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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Pike's Sibelius VC is flowing and beautiful, and intense when it needs to be, as exemplified by the off-beat, minor-second ascensions leading up the first gentle climax of the slow mov't. I also don't recall a more mischievous and just plain fun 3rd mov't; both Pike and the Bergen have a blast. Overall, Blessedly no editorializing from Pike: no bizarre rubatos, accelerandos, or "daring" tempos. She sets her tone control to "desolate beauty" and leaves it there. Great for a first-timer or anyone who doesn't like interventionist approaches.
I was so impressed with Pletnev's fever-dream of a Manfred, (and my goodness, the recording!) that I thought I would try the biggest hot-house piece of all: Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. There were stretches where I began to lose the track of the line, but it's hard to know whether that's my fault, Pletnev's or the composer's. That said, the big moments are stunningly voluptuous, (no chasteness from the RNO) and the more inward, impressionist moments caress the ear as they should. But does it all hang together? By the end of the piece, you won't care: my hat's off to the way the recording team managed to accommodate the writhing big theme and final chord.
Tough call here: Respighi's Metamorphoseon is scandalously overshadowed by his Trilogy. It's worth your while if you haven't heard it: A theme is presented followed by a very interesting set of variations, capped by a Finale in which the organ makes a cameo appearance. Sample the 5th variation, probably the heart of the piece. But: to my ears, the Liege strings don't quite project the ripeness of the score and Neschling's overall conception is a bit relaxed and understated compared to Simon's on Chandos. The Chandos though--which ironically won Gramophone's Engineering of the Year Award back in the day--is frankly painful to listen to. Your call.
This is the most benignly-beautiful Faure Requiem I've heard since Willcock's old EMI performance. Nothing breaks the spell, performance-wise or recording-wise, from beginning to end. Very little vibrato from the choir, and I know: some find such a sound "pure," others find it "denatured." I fall in the former camp, not least for the clarified polyphony. Those with a slavish devotion to traditional choral style would do well to seek out Mravinsky's Faure Requiem featuring the Jarhoff Cossack Choir.
Finally, Mendelssohn's original Octet, to which I'll be listening tonight. Based on the samples, the performers' energy in the first mov't could very well light a small city. I cut my teeth on the Vienna Octet and then Marriner's (RIP) but wasn't until I heard Columbia's Marlboro Octet that I realized how much more vitality could be milked from this wonderful piece. Yes, gut strings are used, and though I wouldn't want them in my Vaughan Williams, I certainly look forward to hearing them as applied to Mendelssohn's 8 part writing.
And now I shall pull up a chair....
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Topic - Listening Briefs: Respighi, Faure, Mendelssohn, Scriabin and Sibelius - jdaniel@jps.net 19:51:07 10/04/16 (4)
- I loved the Eroica's Mendelssohn string quartets nt - rbolaw 09:00:11 10/05/16 (1)
- I'm tempted to try their Debussy and Ravel but... - jdaniel@jps.net 10:10:43 10/05/16 (0)
- Mendelssohn's Octet - andy evans 07:43:29 10/05/16 (0)
- Thanks for the write-up - I've only heard the Sibelius recording - Chris from Lafayette 21:22:14 10/04/16 (0)
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